UNICEF registers 30,000 new IDPs

UNICEF has registered 30,000 new Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) this week in the Sierra Leonean towns of Kambia, Bo and Kenema, a spokesman for the agency said today at a news conference in Geneva. This includes thousands of children under five years old. The spokesman said UNICEF national staff were also providing emergency health care to the displaced and needy local populations in these towns. However, the agency’s activities in Freetown had been suspended due to the fighting in the city, the spokesman said. UNICEF, he added, was also distributing blankets, clothes and shelter materials and was providing chlorine for purifying water supplies. The spokesman said UNICEF hoped the ceasefire announced yesterday signalled the beginning of the end of the conflict, which had caused “particular misery to children” who have been forced into armed combat or subjected to atrocities.